20 Second Timeout

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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Correction to Warren Jabali Article

Warren Jabali has brought it to my attention that he is not a Muslim and my Hoopshype article about him has been changed accordingly. I am mentioning this here at 20 Second Timeout for the benefit of readers who may not have seen the corrected version of the article.

Since it has been reported for quite some time that Jabali is a Muslim (including several references to this in the book Loose Balls), I thought he should explain in his own words why he changed his name:

"During my college days at Wichita, I met a lifelong friend Mfuasi (Len Trower) who had a brother Subira (George Trower) who was a member of US. US is an organization founded in Los Angeles by Maulana Ron Karenga. Karenga is also the founder of the African American holiday Kwanza. We in the US movement believed and believe that the struggle of the "Negro" must be a "cultural" struggle wherein black people must give definition to their own struggle. Karenga created a cultural doctrine called Kawaida which at its root promoted the idea that black folks must name themselves, define themselves and speak for themselves instead of having these things done by others.

The African language of Swahili became the source of our African expression and we "named" ourselves with African names and jettisoned the European names. There was no religious connotation to our thinking although Karenga pointed out that mythology (including religion) was in fact one of seven criteria for having a culture. The philosophical foundation of the organization and our belief system was the Seven Principles, which are the exact same principles which are practiced during the Kwanza celebration."

As for the meaning of his new name, he explains, "Jabali as I said derives from Swahili. Swahili derives from an indigenous Bantu language which was combined with Arabic after the Arabs subjugated Africans in East and Central Africa.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Check out Lindy's Pro Basketball 2005-06 for my Nuggets Preview

I wrote the Denver Nuggets season preview for Lindy's Pro Basketball 2005-06. It is available in bookstores now. The magazine also contains a fascinating excerpt from Roland Lazenby's The Show: The Inside Story of the Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers in the Words of Those Who Lived It, which is scheduled for December release; it is must reading for anyone who has bought hook, line and sinker the conventional wisdom that Kobe Bryant is most responsible for the breakup of the Lakers.

About Me

"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)

"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe

"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans

"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan